DIGEST 65: A Good Scissoring
At Auction April 30-May 6, 2025
I received a trove of works by Ray Johnson (American, 1927-1995) yesterday from friend-of-the-stack Juliette, whose mother appeared to have an intimate relationship (…) with him. Johnson was a conceptualist and gadfly in the New York scene, a lot of his work is polemically anti-collectible/non-commodifiable. There’s a pleasingly “Is this garbage?,” countercultural hippy/punk sensibility. He was a pioneer of mail art (the Whitney organized a show of it in 1970), and a lot of the trove consists of strange envelopes and letters (there was also a single human tooth).
When I lived in Berlin my downstairs neighbor was a kindly Portuguese schizophrenic named Paul. He was older, lanky and very elegant. He would pace outside the building smoking cigarettes and, before his decline, make pleasantries with the neighbors. He did ultimately stab a passerby with a pair of scissors, after which I think we all took a dimmer view of him. But in the window between his fairly normal behavior and the scissors incident, he took to presenting his work in the building’s lobby and eventually its stairwells (already graffiti-covered, but in pleasant 90s anarcho fashion—cops as pigs, etc.). Paul’s work was, predictably, enigmatic—outlines for an imaginary “Wassersystem” (water system) that wended through the building, garish images of flowers and meat cut from weekly circulars, and tidy handwritten signs that did little to explain what we were looking at. The overarching sense, though, was of systematicity. You could intimate the linkages between the images and words: the work was autonomous in the very clear sense of abiding by a law Paul had authored, and one that only he could entirely grasp. My roommate Marco had the good sense to collect as much of it as possible before it was torn down, though I always wondered if that rankled Paul (things got tense between the two of them, but I really don’t know who was at fault—Hi, Marco! <3).
This is to say: things could have gone another way for Paul. I don’t like how the romance of mental illness is used to peddle art, but there is something to the parallel autonomies of madness and creative genius. And the madcap Johnson stuff feels so oddly akin to Paul’s work, which will sadly not make it to a museum any time soon. Also—I’m going to reach out to the estate but I’m all ears if you want to tell me what I’m looking at.
Special shoutout to Jeanne Diao who I hope would have liked the Arcades. She had great taste, so I hope so.
I am quietly returning to selling stuff directly. More here. For my precious new subscribers: Landed cost (the final cost you pay) = the hammer price (the highest bid) + the premium (a set percentage added to the hammer price that the auction house takes) + shipping (you’re always on the hook for this) + sales tax
Also, now worth repeating: I don’t get a commission on any of these sales/am not involved in any way with these auctions. To the listings!
One of my favorite bits from Martin is when Sheneneh (Martin Lawrence in drag) stops a conversation to talk to herself, usually about why she actually should fight her neighbors. See this. Anyway that reminds me of this saint from the 1600s conversing with the angels.
Good feet!
I like the seat. I see so much seating that’s cube form because it’s visually appealing, but it doesn’t actually make sense given how people are shaped. This embeds a chair shape in the cube, which is a smart solution.
I like how spindly these get. I think games tables in general make sense for an apartment (they open up).
Cassina production. This feels like a very practical table for one of you. I’ve been seeing other people coming for the Arcades beat (auction pickings) and they focus on very expensive stuff in far away places. Yes it looks nice but here at Arcades central, we understand design to be the art of the possible. So howbowdat?
This is cool.
There was a real tapestry moment last year that kind of came and went but I don’t see it as a trend. Sound dampening, pleasant to the touch. Very good!
So many couches this week. Starting with this bad boy. Teak and leather.
I did not know about David Chipperfield’s furniture. It’s nice! He is consistently very good! Feels a little uptight for a house, but would be very nice in an office. Also in black in the UK here (very weird because these don’t seem to come up at auction often and now there are two; the black is nicer IMO but it is in the UK).
Also kind of stiff for a house but we love Harvey Probber. Would be nice in like the office of some “creatives” (that made me like it less).
May the hammer fall ever in your favor!